Complex Trauma Program

Psychological Injury Consultants have developed a program to meet the individual needs of those with complex or chronic PTSD. In cases involving frequent and repeatedly severe exposure to traumatic events over prolonged periods, the primary symptoms of PTSD often capture only a fraction of the detrimental consequences resulting from chronic traumatic stress. Childhood victims of repetitive abuse can often be categorized as having complex or complicated PTSD, and can exhibit personality problems, emotional instability, problems with attachments and social connections with others, chronic and unexplained physical ailments, inability to trust others or to ever feel safe, and experience frequent episodes of dissociation, which include interruptions in consciousness, memory, identity or perception.

People who are considered to have complex PTSD are more likely to become victims of trauma again. Those with complicated trauma histories are likely to experience considerable impairment in most activities of daily living, and are also more likely to have associated problems, including substance abuse, depression, and a fragmented sense of who they are. It is not only victims of early abuse that experience PTSD that is more complicated, chronic repetitive exposure to grotesque or life-threatening trauma can have similar effects in those who have served in the military or as police officers, firefighters, or emergency medical personnel, as examples. The symptoms of complex or chronic PTSD are likely to be long-lasting. It is estimated that 92 percent of complex PTSD cases also have the symptoms of PTSD. Thus, treatment for complex and chronic PTSD is typically lengthy, as it not only requires people to reduce the reexperiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms of PTSD, but also to make considerable changes in their capacity for trust, reduce long-standing defensive styles, establish a greater sense of control, and develop a positive sense of identity.